about learners.love
I developed learners.love in October 2020, when it became clear that SARS-CoV-2 pandemic would continue for a while and we had to proceed with the delivery of courses online. The name, using “learners” instead of “students” comes from Pearson’s Higher Nationals specifications. It does have a philosophical aspect. The activity is the essence, not the role of being a student – to learning. We continue learning long after the university years, building on what we have learned there.
The first objective of learners.love was to provide recorded sessions to learners for a week, to give an additional (asynchronous) learning opportunity so that those who could not attend real time (synchronous) meetings can follow recordings without any privacy issues.*
When the pandemic sanctions were lifted, I further designed the website to enhance active learning. Then I decided to include thoughts, about my understanding of knowledge generation, knowledge sharing and service to the society.
Why develop a website to stream videos from synchronous sessions?
Privacy laws are in progress. For legal precautions, many organizations require individuals, e.g., students, to give explicit consent at maximum levels. Add to that, these private-to-the-audience recordings are shared on a conglomerate platform, managed by an information technology (IT) department, open to artificial intelligence (AI). I find this context highly debatable in terms of privacy. The Internet, before the ubiquitous monetization of non-suspecting individuals’ online behaviors, had a more positive effect on human societies. Learners.love is inspired by that reading of digital technologies, aimed at offering more opportunities to interact and learn without second thoughts about their online safety.
about the person
Aras earned a Doctorate in Business Administration (Ph.D. in Marketing, with a Specialization in Empirical Modeling), a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA with triple majors, in Marketing, Management and International Business), and a Bachelor’s Degree (BS in Science with a major in Mechanical Engineering) from reputable universities and AACSB accredited graduate schools. In an original research article, he and his co-author reported strong empirical evidence for increased likelihood of e-commerce participation and purchase through social media advertisements, when consumers had more control over their online privacy. This article was published at the prestigious interdisciplinary journal, Computers in Human Behavior, ranked in top 1% in Arts and Humanities by CiteScore, with an impact factor of 9.0 in 2023 according to Vrije Universitet Amsterdam’s publishing guides.
Aras also contributed a reference book chapter to one of the earliest accounts, the SAGE Handbook of Digital Marketing, edited by AnnMarie Hanlon and Tracy Tuten, published in 2022.
He desires to publish high impact research that matters to achieve positive change in human development.